RED RIDING HOOD - THE OTHER VERSION

Many of us are familiar with the story of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.  This story was given to the Brothers Grimm by Marie von Hassenpflug.  What many people do not know, however, is that she gave them a second version.

In this, Red Riding Hood, bearing a cake beneath her smock for Grandma, is told to keep to the forest path.  You'll never guess what accosted her - a Wolf.

"What have you under your dress?" asked the Wolf, with an expression he would never have dared to assume in a street with people around.  (Interpret that as you will.)

"A cake for my Grandma," Red Riding Hood replied.

The Wolf has every intention of making a beeline for Grandma's cottage and having a tasty repast of two humans and a cake.  But Red Riding Hood gets there first and warns Grandma, who looks the place up.  The Wolf, unable to get in, eventually goes up on the roof, looking for a convenient point of entrance.

Grandma, however, has been cooking sausages and the aroma of sausage lingers in the water in which she cooked them.  The door is opened and the water placed in a trough just outside.

The Wolf is nearly overcome by the delicious smlee that wafts upward and leans over further and further to inhale.  Then he falls off the roof into the trough and drowns.

This version of the story is little known.

Another version is told by Perrault, but, in that one, the Wolf eats the Grandmother and Red Riding Hood. Who said all fairytales had persons living happily ever after?